the flight of icarus

raymond queneau

ISBN 10: 0811204839 / ISBN 13: 9780811204835

Published by new directions, new york, 1973

About this Item

advance review copy, first us edition, 1973. in late nineteenth-century paris, hubert is shocked to discover that icarus, the protagonist of his latest novel, has disappeared. icarus has leapt from the page into the three dimensional world to live a full and autonomous life. "the flight of icarus" is queneau's only novel written in the form of a play. new york: new directions. hardcover. book condition: fine. dustjacket condition: closed tear, mild shelfwear to spine. unclipped ($7.50). near fine. b7.

Seller Inventory # 22

Bibliographic Details

• Title: the flight of icarus
• Publisher: new directions, new york
• Publication Date: 1973
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0811204839
• ISBN 13: 9780811204835
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • fiction

About this title

Synopsis

Called by some the French Borges, by others the creator of le nouveau roman a generation ahead of its time, Raymond Queneau's work in fiction continues to defy strict categorization. The Flight of Icarus (Le Vol d'lcare) is his only novel written in the form of a play: seventy-four short scenes, complete with stage directions. Consciously parodying Pirandello and Robbe-Grillet, it begins with a novelist's discovery that his principal character, Icarus by name, has vanished. This, in turn, sets off a rash of other such disappearances. Before long, a number of desperate authors are found in search of their fugitive characters, who wander through the Paris of the 1890s, occasionally meeting one another, and even straying into new novels. Icarus himself--perhaps following the destiny his name suggests--develops a passion for horseless carriages, kites, and machines that fly. And throughout the almost vaudevillian turns of the plot, we are aware, as always, of Queneau's evident delight at holding the thin line between farce and philosophy.

About the Author

Raymond Queneau (1903-1976) is acknowledged as one of the most influential of modern French writers, having helped determine the shape of twentieth-century French literature, especially in his role with the Oulipo, a group of authors that includes Italo Calvino, Georges Perec, and Harry Mathews, among others.